House Oks China Sanctions

WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Thursday broke with President Bush and joined Democrats in a vote of 418-0 to impose new sanctions on China and to condemn Beijing's suppression of human rights.

The sanctions package, worked out by Democratic and Republican foreign policy leaders on Capitol Hill, was a bipartisan substitute for about two dozen bills, some of them harsher and considered likely to be adopted by the House.

Thus the legislation allowed Congress to vent its anger at the Chinese government over the military crackdown on the democracy movement without taking extreme steps like rescinding China's trade status as a "most favored nation."

The Bush administration did not endorse the House move, but also indicated that it did not intend to veto it.

The sanctions approved by the House would suspend the financial support of the Overseas Private Investment Corp. in China, halt spending of previously authorized money for trade and development, require American opposition for six months to liberalization of export controls, and ban the export of crime control equipment and nuclear equipment that could be used for military purposes.

Also, the measure would prevent the president from lifting the sanctions he has already imposed except for reasons of national security or unless he assures Congress that China has made progress in restoring human rights.

Those previous sanctions in cluded a ban on the export of arms and military-related equipment, suspension of high-level contact between the United States and Chinese governments, a ban on the export of satellites for launching from China, and curtailing of nuclear cooperation.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to take up its foreign aid bill after the July 4 recess, at which time it will consider several proposals to increase sanctions against China. It is not yet clear whether they will be adopted.

In his first public appearance since he took over as the new head of the Chinese Communist Party from Zhao Ziyang, Jiang Zemin has asserted that the leaders of the democracy movement should be "severely punished" and shown "not an iota of forgiveness" for their role in what he called a "counterrevolutionary rebellion."

In the speech, which was published in the official press on Thursday, Jiang reiterated the policy toward dissidents, some 1,600 of whom have been arrested since the army crushed the protest movement on June 4.

While he said intellectuals and others who only gave verbal support to the protest movement should be given "ideological education," Jiang said there would be no tolerance for the "adversaries of socialism" or for "those who stubbornly stick to bourgeois liberalism."

Secretary of State James A. Baker III told reporters that "the China sanctions package does not have the Bush administration's endorsement," but added: "There has not been a veto threat."

The House sponsors overrode the initial objections of both Democratic and Republican leaders who had argued that the government should speak with a single voice, that of Bush. But some in Congress considered the president too conciliatory, and pressed for stronger action.

Thomas S. Foley, the speaker of the House, told reporters: "I've generally thought that we ought to try to stay together with the president as much as possible on China policy."

But he noted that there was strong sentiment in the House for greater action. "I think the administration can live with this amendment," Foley said. Similarly, Rep. Robert H. Michel of Illinois, the House minority leader, said: "I applaud the president for what he's done, and I'm reluctant to go beyond that."

He added, that he supported the measure because "it's very important that we forge a bipartisan foreign policy."

House sponsors said that the vote reflected the outrage of the American people at the imprisonment and execution of Chinese who had non-violently expressed their political beliefs and at the abridgements of freedom of expression, the press, assembly, and association.

Rep. Stephen J. Solarz, D-N.Y., the chief sponsor of the sanctions package, an amendment to the foreign aid bill, said: "This amendment steers a very careful course between two extremes - those who would like us to entirely sever diplomatic relationships with China and those who don't want us to take any action for fear of disturbing Deng Xiaoping and driving him into the arms of Russia."

The House measure also provided for the creation of a "Task Force on Students from the People's Republic of China in the U.S." This group would assess the needs and status of Chinese citizens admitted to the United States under non-immigrant visas and help coordinate sources of financial aid and information and assistance.

The measure said: "The president should continue to emphasize to the leaders of the government of the People's Republic of China that resumption of normal diplomatic and military relations between the U.S. and the People's Republic of China will depend directly on the hinese government's halting of executions of pro-democracy movement supporters, releasing those imprisoned for their political beliefs, and increasing respect for internationally recognized human rights."